


Paving the Way Forward

by WitchRavenFox



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Gen, IMHO, Sheriff Stilinski's Name is John, Why? Because i said so., father/son honesty, we never saw this and we needed to, well i needed to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-12
Updated: 2018-07-12
Packaged: 2019-06-09 07:21:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15262323
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WitchRavenFox/pseuds/WitchRavenFox
Summary: The Stilinski’s have some real talk in the aftermath of the demise of the Darach and the Alpha Pack.A/N - I don't feel this summary even close to says everything that I want to.





	Paving the Way Forward

**Author's Note:**

> I was rifling through some notes and decided that even though this is completely unbetaed, I need to publish something because its been so long. I started this over year ago because I hated that we never saw John and Stiles really deal with the fact that John so vehemently wouldn’t believe him, because you know that hurt Stiles (I hate things that hurt Stiles).  
> So this takes place within the first 24 hours after the end of 3A in the Stilinski household. You don't need tissues.
> 
> UPDATED 2nd/12/18: I have given this a twice-over now and think I have fixed any glaring errors, but please do let me know if there is any spelling or grammar that I have missed.

 

John Stilinski stumbled down his staircase and listened for anything unusual. he wasn't sure what has woken him, but the last twenty-four hours since the rescue had been eventful and he still didn't feel like he was processing everything he needed to. Being in a life and death situation once again made him think about what was important in his life... And Stiles was more important than anything — everything. Stiles was everything he had left in his life, the last of Claudia, the reason to get up and try harder, to stay in control of the gold liquid demon that taunted him daily. Stiles looked after him when it should be the other way around.

 

John wasn’t sure exactly _when_ it had happened, not in that first year after Claudia died but maybe after that. He could guess why though, Stiles was just like him, trying to help people by putting himself in danger. The only difference was that John helped people he didn't know, and Stiles’ first commitment was to helping him then helping everyone else that he deemed worthy. John couldn’t even remember when Stiles learned to cook, what parent doesn't really know that? He had missed too much, missed out on when his son had apparently gotten involved in a supernatural world putting himself in danger and not feeling like he could talk to him. Stiles had always been able to talk to him, always, and somewhere in the last year he didn't feel that, and that made John feel terrible.

 

‘Dad?’ Stiles’ voice drifted in the from the kitchen and sounded alert, too alert.

 

‘Stiles, you okay son? What’s going on?’ he thought back to whatever had awoken him and had him rushing down the stairs and realised he must have heard Stiles. Something that wouldn't have woken him before with such a jolt.

 

‘Oh, nothing’s wrong. I just, couldn’t sleep. Happens more now with everything that goes on. I may occasionally have more Adderall depending on if I need to stay up all night or not. It’s the only way I can stay on task, and Derek hates me getting all,’ Stiles waved his arms about, ‘like I’m gonna accidentally smack someone in the face. Scott doesn't even notice any more so maybe there’s hope people will forget.’

 

‘It’ll be different when you go to college, you’re only a Junior at high school now, things will change when you find a nice girl to settle down with,’ John reasoned.

 

Stiles spluttered a laugh spraying his Gatorade across the table. ‘Sure Dad, I’ll find a special nice person to introduce to the world of the supernatural and pray they aren’t killed by a psycho old guy, a crazed werewolf or maybe a magic wielding person out for revenge. Nope, I think it’s safe to say I will either end up alone or with someone from my world. Cos the supernatural world is my world now, Dad, you do get that right?’

 

John moved to the kettle and checked it for water before refilling it in silence and flicking it back on, noting that Stiles seriously said person and not girl, and had just mentioned Derek Hale as though they spend a lot of time together.

‘I get that you feel that this is something you are fully involved in. I get that there is next to nothing I can say to change your mind, otherwise you would have told me sooner. Your mind is made up,’ John pulled two mugs from the shelf, ‘but there are all of these things that I don't know, and I think now is the time to tell me everything, from the beginning. I can’t promise I wont question you on lies told or ask questions that you haven't answered that I think I need to know more about, but I think I need to know it all, to decide how much I need to get involved. To understand how much you kept from me.’

 

John watched Stiles nod with a faraway look in his face and realised he was already trying to mitigate the damage. ‘Okay, I can tell you everything, answer questions that you asked to the best of my knowledge... but before I do, I need to know why you wouldn’t believe me when I tried to tell you with Cora and again at the hospital. I don't think you know how much it hurt to know that you couldn’t even believe in me just a little, to give me the benefit of the doubt. I wasn’t doing something that Mom would have done, I wasn’t losing my mind, I had someone with me willing to show you, and you still wouldn’t believe me. Why is that?’

 

John thought back to what he told Melissa and Chris by the Nemeton, to why he missed seeing Claudia in her last moments, and knew Stiles needed to know now more than ever that he just wasn’t ready but that he was now.

‘I couldn’t believe you, not because it was you, but because I wasn’t ready to accept the supernatural in my life. I’ve managed to avoid it - ignore it - for years. Even the day...even the day your Mom died. I was at a RTA and the woman, she told me to go, she told me I had a chance to say goodbye, and I didn’t believe her because even though she couldn’t have known me or your Mom, it just wasn’t possible, and I wasn’t ready to accept anything supernatural. Not after all the things I’d seen by then, there had to be something rational. Your Mom was the one that believed in strange things, spirits and magic. So you telling me, clearly, concisely with a Hale girl that disappeared... I just couldn’t. Because I wasn’t ready Stiles.’

 

John noticed at some point he’d let his gaze fall to the table rather than Stiles, and lifted them to watch his son watching him with a shrewd closed gaze. Moments passed before Stiles nodded to himself and took a long sip of his tea, not complaining about the lack of honey in his herbal blend.

 

‘Okay Dad. I’ll start from the beginning, well the start of when I got involved. It started with me listening in on a call you got about finding half a dead body of a woman - that we didn’t know was Laura Hale - in the preserve and me racing round to Scott’s to convince him to come with me. That was the night that Scott was bitten by a crazed Peter Hale and lost his inhaler, the night that Derek found half of his sisters body and buried it with wolfsbane and found Scott’s lost inhaler. It was also the night that Allison and her mum drove into town and almost ran Scott off the road. It was the last time I lied to you to simply cover my own ass. That’s when it all started for me.’


End file.
